100 books like A Family Guide to Waste-free Living

Cradle to Cradle challenges conventional approaches to design and sustainability.

The authors present a compelling vision for a world where products are created with a 'waste equals food' philosophy, imitating natural systems by reusing resources and eliminating harmful waste. The books struck me as being both encouraging and depressing at the same time, a sentiment I get from many other sustainable and recycling books.

However this is the reality of the complex world of materials we have created for ourselves and one we must come to grips with. Unfortunately change can be slow, so even though this book was written two decades ago it remains relevant today and offers a pragmatic roadmap for the future. 

Garbology is the wake up call we all need! It’s shocking and eye-opening and because of this it's an excellent place to start reassessing our own understanding of waste.

Despite being published in 2013, it remains extremely relevant. Unfortunately, the stats reported in the book have not improved all that much over the last decade. Not only does the author highlight the issues of our waste but he introduces you to the reality of the political, economic, and logistical nightmare that is waste management.

It's really important that we understand these challenges in order to accept the imperfections of waste management and recycling. Doing so saves us from getting discouraged when things don’t always work and feeling like giving up recycling altogether. 

Reading Material Value will deepen your understanding of how everyday products are made, motivate you to make more informed consumer choices, and inspire you to advocate for more sustainable and less wasteful manufacturing practices. Seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

But the book is jam-packed with detailed information helping the reader to appreciate what is required to make the products we use daily. In addition, I appreciate how the author gives the background information from a fair standpoint and emphasizes that cooperation and open communication are preferable strategies for change than direct confrontational tactics.

While bad companies do exist, more often than not, other circumstances impede companies from acting in a more ethical manner.

In researching my own book I learnt that e-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams on the planet. It impacts the environment and humans at all stages from extraction of raw materials to the end of life disposal.

A key solution is to keep items in their originally intended use as long as possible. Right to Repair explores the critical issues of corporations limiting consumers' ability to repair their own products, leading to planned obsolescence and ultimately unnecessary waste. This is an urgent issue that requires more attention and plays a crucial role in reducing e-waste and its negative effects on the environment.

Right to Repair will help the reader understand their rights to repair-friendly technology and help them become a more informed consumer.

First, let me explain where I'm coming from – my husband and I spent over a decade growing nearly all of our own vegetables and a considerable portion of our other sustenance on our homestead. So even though our current smaller plot only feeds us a side dish or three per day, I tend to think of gardening as something that should be good for our wallets as well as our bellies and the earth. Gardening When It Counts is all that and is 100% based on the author's personal experience growing most of his own food. Highly recommended.

A meaningful and absolutely pleasurable read that supports a treasured purpose in our complex world and justly speaks to one of the genuine accountabilities of being human: caring for and interring our dead. How do we plan for our final needs after passing and retain climate and community? Mallory faced these problems after her parents died in nearly identical biking mishaps a few years apart. She has inspired me greatly with how she writes about one of my favorite subjects. And how extra enjoyable to have my work attributed a few times throughout her book.

Derwood the Goat is a fussy farmer who grumpily guards his garden against dandelions, pigweed, crabgrass, sapsuckers, and all manner of invaders, especially rabbits. So, when he catches a cute little bunny named Tabitha nosing around his vegetables, he’s very suspicious, and very crabby. Tabitha has one excuse after another, all delivered in delightfully pun-filled banter with Derwood, who’s having none of it. Tabitha finally offers to weed the garden while the exhausted Derwood dozes off in his rocking chair. When Derwood wakes up, the weeding is done, and he rewards Tabitha by sharing his harvest with her. In the end, everybody gets what they wanted: food, friendship, and nonstop nibbling. I love this story because it shows how humor, conversation, and cooperation can turn adversaries into friends.

The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden is about the magic of standing up for something you believe in, and discovering unexpected supporters.

With echoes of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. In the Vanderbeeker family, everyone might have different goals, talents, opinions, and personalities, but they all stick together when it counts. (Similar to Elizabeth Enright’s The Saturdays, Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes, and Jeanne Birdsall’s The Penderwicks).

These series are perfect to read alone or as a family read-aloud, because everyone will find a character to relate to.

I’ve been recommending Brian Capon’s Botany for Gardeners to my gardening students for years. Unlike your typical botany textbook, it’s written expressly for gardeners, which means it presents all you need to know about botany if you are a gardener, not a scientist or a botany student. The presentation is clear, concise, and conversational, so it feels like learning about botany from a friend…a really smart friend! This book will either take you as far as you need to go in botany, or it will open you up to the world of botany and inspire you to learn more. 

Garden history is largely written about the gardens of the rich and famous, kings, queens, and aristocrats, But most of the population, in many countries, have small gardens, balconies, and window-boxes and tend them as lovingly as do the paid gardeners of the rich. Margaret Willes uncovers their history in Britain over five centuries; it is a difficult task because most working-class gardeners left few or no documentary records, but she succeeds triumphantly. Gardening societies, at which they showed off their prize fruit and vegetables, allotments, the garden cities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all have their place, together with the archetypal cottage garden with roses around the door.